The Wizards had a goal lead and a man advantage with 6 minutes left in the game, but let the lead slip away and ended up coming away with only 1 point last night in LA. KC was outplayed early, but held on and took advantage of a Gregg Berhalter red card to get a 1-0 through Davy Arnaud, but couldn't hold the lead late, as Edson Buddle equalized for LA.

The Wizards made three changes to their lineup against Chivas, with Michael Harrington, Herculez Gomez, and Kevin Souter coming into the lineup. KC came out and started by passing the ball pretty well early on, but that passing didn't lead to any real dangerous attacks, as they didn't even test Donovan Ricketts in the LA net. The Galaxy started to get more of the possession and dominate the game, as Lance Watson had trouble dealing with Eddie Lewis on the Galaxy's left side. Thankfully for the Wizards, they had the post on their side, and Alan Gordon on the field for the Galaxy. Gordon missed a hattrick of good chances over the course of the game. His first came on a through ball, but Kevin Hartman got off his line well to stuff Gordon. Later in the half, Gordon hit the cross bar after a Lewis cross. On the rebound, Hartman did enough to throw off Landon Donovan, who headed over the bar. LA continued to pressure, but couldn't get a goal. The Wizards best chance of the first half came very late in the half when Claudio Lopez played a cross field ball to Matt Besler, whose cross was met by Arnaud. Arnaud's redirection hit Ricketts in the chest and bounced back out into play.

LA came out in the second half and continued to pressure. Gordon missed his third chance of the game when he ran onto a Demo Kovalenko cross, but put his shot over. The tone of the game changed in the 59th minute though. Lopez was played through one-on-one with Ricketts, but Berhalter grabbed Lopez's shorts as he tried to pull away from the Galaxy defender. The pull on the shorts was enough for referee Terry Vaughn to red card Berhalter for denying a goal scoring opportunity. After the red card, KC started to have more of the possession and took the game to LA, but still could not find net. Instead, it was the Galaxy who would get the next best chances. Chris Klein, a second half sub forced a fantastic one handed save from Hartman after he cut inside on Matt Besler. Off the ensuing corner, LA again hit the cross bar, this time through Buddle. Finally in the 84th minute, KC broke down the Galaxy defense. Roger Espinoza did a good job of keeping a cross in bounds by crossing it back into the goal box, there Gomez met it with a diving header. The header was going wide, but Arnaud was able to turn the ball into the open net after Ricketts had committed himself on the header.

The Galaxy still pushed the game though, and a poor give away by Jack Jewsbury was played to Donovan who found Buddle streaking into the box. Buddle's shot beat Hartman to the near post, leveling the score. A disappointing result for KC, being a man up and giving away a goal like that to give LA a share of the points (their 9th draw of the season).

Wizards Man of the Match - Kevin Hartman - The near post goal aside, Hartman saved the Wizards tonight. He did well getting off his line to stop Gordon early in the game, and made a fantastic save on Klein to keep the score level.

Friday, May 29, 2009

The Wizards travel to LA this weekend to take on the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center tomorrow night. LA comes into the game on the backs of an 8 game unbeaten run. While that 8 game run might sound impressive, the Galaxy only have 1 win in that time frame, the other 7 games have been draws. In their last game, LA was a man up for 65 minutes against lowly FC Dallas and were only able to grab a draw. Bruce Arena has LA playing a tight game designed to frustrate other teams.

Kansas City comes into the game missing two players after red cards to Josh Wolff and Santiago Hirsig last week against Chivas. Each missing player poses their own problems, Wolff is the team's leading scorer with 6 goals and has been in good form lately as well. Hirsig looks to have almost fully adjusted to the style of play in MLS and has done a good job of being the guy that holds the ball up. The absence of those two will be hard to overcome, but this will be a chance to test the depth that Coach Onalfo talks about quite often. I have a feeling we'll see the same lineup that started the first half against the Brass on Wednesday.

Key Match Up - Jack Jewsbury vs Landon Donovan - Donovan will play withdrawn behind the striker(s) and it will likely fall on Jewsbury to be the man covering him. Not an easy task to mark one of the best players in the league, but it's something that Jewsbury has done in the past so hopefully he'll do well again.

PREDICTION - LA has been grinding out the results lately and I doubt we'll see much different from them this weekend, they'll look to frustrate KC and capitalize on a mistake. With Sean Franklin set to miss time for the Galaxy, the Wizards will likely be looking to run at the older back line of the Galaxy.

Here's your weekly update on how the demolition of Bannister Mall is going. Demolition continues to move on, and they're getting closer and closer to Sears. Today while I was out there, they were working full force on getting parts of the building down. In fact, I got to see one of the beams pulled out causing part of the roof to collapse while I was driving from one spot to another. Below you can see some before and after pictures of that piece of demolition. Here's the full album.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Wizards midfielder Roger Espinoza has already been named to the Honduran roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against the US and El Salvador. Now Espinoza has been named to the preliminary roster for Honduras for this summer's Gold Cup. Espinoza is one of 30 players on the original roster. That number will be cut down to 20 for the Gold Cup.

Yesterday after the Wizards game against the Brass, Thad and I had a chance to interview this week's poll winner, Michael Kraus, and runner up, Roger Espinoza. Kraus talked about what he needs to do to get more playing time with the first team. He talked about his versatility and how that helps him on the field (he played right back against the Brass). Kraus also talked about Josh Wolff and Claudio Lopez and how he's learned from them and what they've taught him.

With Espinoza, Thad and I spent much of the interview talking about his recent call up to the Honduran national team again. He talked about the training that he gets with the Honduran team compared to that with the Wizards. Espinoza talked about his hope to get some playing time in this set of qualifiers and how Honduras is going to do overall in qualifying. He talked about bit about the upcoming game against the United States in Chicago and who Honduras needs to watch out for in the match. We then moved onto his Wizards career and how he feels it's developed so far. He talks about how Coach Onalfo has helped him to develop as a player. We spent some time talking about the two red cards in the last game and how the team adjusted to playing 2 men down. Finally we talked a little bit about Espinoza's two red cards last season and if he felt that gave people the impression that he was a dirty player.

August 8th, the Wizards were supposed to be in DC taking on United in MLS league play. That game has now been moved to September 9th. The reason for the move is the fact that DC has reached an agreement to play Spanish powerhouse, Real Madrid on August 9th at FedEx field. This match has been rumored for months now and has finally come true. The move means that the game will now be played on a Wednesday night in DC. It also means the Wizards will have a 3 game East coast road trip, as the Wizards play at New England on Saturday the 5th and New York on Saturday the 12th. Should make for a tiring 8 day run for the Wizards in that late part of the season.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Most of the big European leagues are done, but the summer leagues around the world are going strong, and that includes leagues with a few former Wizards in them.

MLSNick Garcia - San Jose Earthquakes - Started and played 90 minutes in San Jose 3-1 loss to Houston on Saturday. Garcia started and played 90 minutes tonight in San Jose's 2-1 loss to Columbus.Taylor Graham - Seattle Sounders FC - Dressed but did not play in Seattle's 2-2 draw in Colorado. Did not play on Tuesday in Seattle's 1-0 win over Colorado in a US Open Cup play in game. Graham will now also miss time with a broken leg.Will Hesmer - Columbus Crew - Did not dress tonight in Columbus' 2-1 win over San Jose.Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Came off the bench and played 16 minutes in LA's 1-1 draw with Dallas.Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in RSL's 0-0 draw with DC United.Brandon Prideaux - Chicago Fire - Did not dress in Chicago's 1-0 win over New York.Carey Talley - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 minutes in Chivas' 1-1 draw with Kansas City.Shavar Thomas - Chivas USA - Started and played 84 minutes in Chivas' 1-1 draw with Kansas City.Dave van den Bergh - FC Dallas - Started and played 61 minutes in Dallas' 1-1 draw with LA.Sasha Victorine - Chivas USA - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Chivas' 1-1 draw with KC, recording an assist.Tyson Wahl - Seattle Sounders FC - Came off the bench and played 10 minutes in Seattle's 2-2 draw with Colorado. Started and played 90 minutes in Seattle's 1-0 win over Colorado in their US Open Cup play in game.

USLStephen Armstrong - Charleston - Did not dress in Charleston's 2-0 win over Rochester.Vicente Arze - Vancouver - Vancouver did not play this week. Did not appear in Vancouver's 1-0 win over Montreal in the Nutrilife Canadian Championship.Byron Carmichael - Ocean City Barons (PDL) - Came off the bench and played 27 minutes in the Barons' 1-0 win over New Hampshire. Started and played 67 minutes, scoring 1 goal in Ocean City's 3-0 win over the Rhode Island Stingrays. Ocean City clinched a birth in this year's US Open Cup.Ryan Caugherty - Austin - Started and played 69 minutes in Austin's 1-0 loss to Carolina.Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not dress for Minnesota in their 0-0 draw with Miami.AJ Godbolt - Austin - Came off the bench and played 27 minutes in Austin's 1-0 loss to Charleston.Andrew Gregor - Rochester - Came off the bench and played 32 minutes in Rochester's 2-0 loss to Charleston.Willy Guadarrama - Austin Aztex U-23 (PDL) - Did not dress in Austin's 4-0 win over El Paso.Pat Healey - Baltimore (USL2) - Started and played 90 minutes in CPB's 1-1 draw with Richmond on Saturday. Started and played 81 minutes on Tuesday in CPB's 0-0 draw with Western Mass.Amir Lowery - Carolina - Came off the bench and played 6 minutes in Carolina's 3-0 win over Cleveland. Started and played 90 minutes in Carolina's 1-0 win over Austin.Ryan McMahen - Austin - Started and played 90 minutes in Austin's 1-0 loss to Carolina.Ryan Pore - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes on Friday in Portland's 1-1 draw with Puerto Rico. Started and played 87 minutes on Sunday in Portland's 2-1 win over Puerto Rico.Eric Quill - Houston Leones (PDL) - Did not dress in either of Houston's games this week (1-0 loss to Laredo and 2-1 loss to Rio Grande Valley.Yomby William - Richmond (USL2) - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace Baltimore.John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 2-0 win over Rochester.

InternationalEloy Colombano - Club Atlético Atlanta - Argentina - Atlanta defeated CSyD Merlo 1-0 today.Chris Konopka - Longford Town - Ireland - Longford Town lost to Monaghan United this past week.Ryan Raybould - Gefle IF FF - Sweden - Did not dress for Gefle's 1-0 win over AIK.Scott Sealy - Maccabi Tel Aviv - Israel - Started and played 67 minutes in Tel Aviv's 3-0 win over Maccabi Petah Tikva.Khari Stephenson - Aalesunds FK - Norway - Started and played 84 minutes, scoring the lone goal in Aalesunds, 1-0 win over Stabæk, he was also named Man of the Match.Antti Sumiala - FC Porin Palloilijat - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in FC PoPa's 1-1 draw with PK-35. Started and played 90 minutes in their 3-0 loss to AC Oulu.Matt Taylor - TUS Koblenz - Germany - Koblenz's season is over, but Taylor has moved to fellow Bundesliga 2 side, FSV Frankfurt.Ivan Trujillo - Deportes Quindío - Quindío did not qualify for the group stage playoffs of the Apertura season of the Copa Mustang.

The Wizards once again took care of KC's PDL side, the Brass today out at the Swope Park training facility, 4-1. Unlike last week when the two teams played, the Wizards first team actually took part in part of the match, playing the first 45 minutes, with the reserves playing the second half. Here's the lineup for the Wizards in the first half.

The Wizards were the team with the better chances in the first half, but unlike the first time these two teams played, the Brass were able to attack more than they had previously. Still, it was the Wizards that found the break through, from Davy Arnaud. Arnaud received a through ball and was able to out run his defender and beat the Brass goalkeeper to the far post. KC continued to pressure the rest of the half, but the Brass' goalkeeper made some good saves on Claudio Lopez and Herculez Gomez to keep the game at 1-0.

Both teams made changes to their lineups to start the second half. The Wizards sub in the entire second team to play the second half, including red card recipiants, Josh Wolff and Santiago Hirsig. Here's how KC lined up in the second half.

The second half saw the Wizards control the game and create some good chances, and it was Graham Zusi who finally doubled KC's lead. He received a ball played back to him from Matt Marquess, and Zusi fired low inside the post to make it 2-0. The Wizards continued to push, and Josh Wolff could have made it 3, but his shot after a give and go with Zusi went just wide. Zusi almost got a second, but his shot hit the outside of the post. Finally, Wolff added the third, as Marquess worked with Roger Espinoza down the left, and then crossed in to a waiting Wolff, who was able to direct the ball into the net with his foot.

The Brass responded immediately though, as one of their players raced onto a long ball over the top. Boris Pardo came off his line, but missed on a slide tackle. The Brass player rounded Pardo and from the side of the box curled a shot in to make it 3-1. KC continued to pressure and regained the 3 goal lead through Wolff again. Michael Kraus and Abe Thompson worked a 1-2 down the right side. Kraus played a ball along the ground into the box where Wolff met it to make it 4-1. Still the Brass continued to push and had a deflected shot go off the post, but that was the best chance late for the Brass.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

MLS has introduced a new weekly award, a Save of the Week award for goalkeepers. This week, Wizards goalkeeper, Kevin Hartman is up for the award with his save on Sacha Kljestan's dipping shot. You can vote for the save here. And check out the save again below.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Roger Espinoza continues to be a part of Honduras' plans in their current World Cup Qualifying cycle, as he was once again called up by Reinaldo Rueda for Honduras' two up coming World Cup qualifiers against the United States and El Salvador on June 6th and 10th respectively. Espinoza has yet to appear for Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, but does currently have 3 caps and 1 goal for Los Catrachos. Espinoza will join the team in Fort Lauderdale to train before heading to Chicago for the game against the United States.

After this week's game against Chivas, it's time for another player interview poll. This week there are four players to vote on, most of whom haven't been on too many of these polls.

Roger Espinoza - Honduran midfielder is starting to get starts for the Wizards now and looks to be in the plans for not only the Wizards but Honduras.Aaron Hohlbein - Starting to form a good partnership with Jimmy Conrad in the center of defense.Michael Kraus - Continues to make appearances for the Wizards coming off the bench.Kurt Morsink - Has started to regularly make the bench for the Wizards, but has not gotten into a match this season.

The Wizards again have a goal nominated for Goal of the Week. Claudio Lopez's free kick against Chivas USA is one of this week's five nominees. Lopez has stiff competition from Amado Guevara of TFC and Fredy Montero of Seattle. Check out Lopez's goal then go vote.

The Wizards took the lead, gave it up, then held on after going down 2 men to earn a 1-1 draw with league leading Chivas last night at Community America Ballpark. Both Kansas City and Chivas got up and down the field fairly quickly early on in the game, but neither team was able to get many good chances early on. As the half rolled on, Chivas started to dictate the pace a bit more and control the game. Goalkeeper, Kevin Hartman had to make a couple very fine saves to keep KC in the game, including one off of a free kick that took a deflection on the way through that Hartman did well to touch over the bar. The team's went into the half tied at 0-0.

Early in the second KC grabbed the lead through Claudio Lopez. Roger Espinoza had been fouled about 24 yards from goal. Lopez took the free kick and struck it sweetly into the side netting on the near post giving KC the lead. The lead lasted less than 10 minutes though, as Chivas won a free kick in the 64th minute that was touched on by former Wizard, Sasha Victorine to Eduardo Lillingston, who cut back on Lance Watson and finished inside Hartman's near post to level the score.

Then the game started to get interesting. In the 67th minute, Josh Wolff was brought down just outside the box, although Wolff made a meal of the tackle, the foul was not called. Wolff took exception to comments made by Mariano Trujillo and Shavar Thomas for his dive on the tackle. In the confrontation Wolff leaned in towards Trujillo and the two "bumped" heads (although bumped is a relative turn, it was barely a touch). It doesn't matter how weak the bump was, it was the act of Wolff leaning in that the referee saw as an attempted head butt that earned him the red card. Maybe a little harsh, but Wolff has to be smarter in those situations. The play also saw Trujillo and Jack Jewsbury yellow carded (Jewsbury for dissent). A man up, Chivas was able to control the game more and looked the team more likely to find a winner, although KC did have their chances on the counter. In the 83rd minute, a clumsy tackle by Santiago Hirsig drew him a second yellow on the night, meaning another red for KC and they'd have to finish the game with 9 players. The Hirsig card (for a reckless tackle) was harsh in my opinion, considering the fouls that the referee had let go without handing out cards earlier in the game. The referee lost control early in the game, allowing the players to play so much that he lost control of the game, resulting in him having to get whistle and card happy to try and regain control of the game. the Wizards still held on late and were able to come away with 1 point from the game.

Wizards Man of the Match - Kevin Hartman - Made the big saves required of him, especially in the first half when he had some very good saves to keep the game level. He made one gaffe in the second half, but it ended up not costing the Wizards.

Friday, May 22, 2009

The Wizards return home tomorrow to take on the league leaders, Chivas USA at Community America Ballpark at 7:30. Chivas sits 8 points clear in the race for the Supporters' Shield with about 1/3rd of the season played. The Goats arrived in KC yesterday and trained out at the Wizards' Swope Park training facility today. They arrive on the backs of a tough 2-2 draw with DC, which saw Chivas give up 2 goals in the final 15 minutes to see 3 points evaporate to 1. Chivas comes into town now with 4 former Wizards on their team, and it's the first time that Sasha Victorine returns to KC since being traded last season.

KC comes in after probably their best all around performance of the season in their 2-0 win in Salt Lake last week. From practice this week it looks like everyone is going to be ready to go tomorrow, so I'd fully expect them to come out with the same lineup that they did at Rio Tinto.

Key Match Up - Josh Wolff and Claudio Lopez vs Chivas' back line - The Wizards forwards against Chivas' back line is going to be the big match up. Chivas has only allowed 5 goals this season, only 1 on the road. Wolff is the Wizards' inform striker and will look to score in his 4th straight game for KC.

PREDICTION - This is only Chivas' third trip outside the state of California this season (they defeated a lackluster Dallas squad and lost to Toronto at BMO), which could certainly work against the Goats, as they have not had to do a whole lot of traveling this season. They will be wanting to rebound from that poor final 15 minutes against DC, and Preki is the type of coach that will have them working on avoiding that sort of thing again. Also working in KC's favor is their all time record. KC is 5-0 all time in KC against Chivas.

Despite the delays in financing that will likely keep the stadium from opening in time for the 2011 season, demolition continues to bring down Bannister Mall. There are now only 2 entrances to the actual mall still there, as all the rest have come down. There are also a lot more holes as the crews work on getting Sears cleared out completely so that it can be brought down too. Here is the full album.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

So All Star voting has been going on for a little over a week now for fans, and it would appear that the Seattle fans are doing their best Toronto FC fans impression by stuffing the ballot in favor of their team's players. Some of the players, like Kasey Keller, are certainly deserving of a spot in the All Star game's "First XI", but there are certainly better players available than some of them. Kansas City is certainly one of the teams that have players more than deserving of being voted into the game. Josh Wolff is one of those candidates, especially with the good form he is currently in. Jack Jewsbury is another current Wizard who definitely deserves a look. So go ahead and do some ballot stuffing of your own.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Another week of updates on former Wizards. The big European leagues are winding down as Eddie Johnson's season is over and Matt Taylor's will be over soon. I'll be providing an update to this write up as Vancouver and Charleston are both playing tonight.

MLSNick Garcia - San Jose Earthquakes - The Earthquakes were off this past week.Taylor Graham - Seattle Sounders FC - Dressed but did not play in Seattle's 1-1 draw with FC Dallas.Will Hesmer - Columbus Crew - Did not dress for Columbus in their 1-1 draw with LA.Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Came off the bench and played 20 minutes in LA's 1-1 draw with Columbus.Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Started and played 63 minutes in RSL's 2-0 loss to Kansas City.Brandon Prideaux - Chicago Fire - Started and played 90 minutes in Chicago's 2-0 win at Toronto.Carey Talley - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 minutes in Chivas' 2-2 draw with DC United.Shavar Thomas - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 in Chivas' 2-2 draw with DC United.Dave van den Bergh - FC Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 1-1 draw with Seattle.Sasha Victorine - Chivas USA - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in Chivas' 2-2 draw with DC United.Tyson Wahl - Seattle Sounders FC - Came off the bench in the 18th minute for Seattle in their 1-1 draw with Dallas.

USLStephen Armstrong - Charleston - Did not dress in Charleston's 0-0 draw with Montreal. Did not dress in Charleston's 1-0 over Miami.Vicente Arze - Vancouver - Started and played 69 minutes in Vancouver's 2-1 loss to Rochester. Did not play in Vancouver's 2-0 win over Montreal Nutrilite Canadian Championships.Byron Carmichael - Ocean City Barons (PDL) - Started and played 68 minutes in Ocean City's 2-0 win over the Long Island Rough Riders.Ryan Caugherty - Austin - Started and played 90 minutes in Austin's 4-0 loss to Montreal.Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not dress for Minnesota in their 1-0 loss to Cleveland.AJ Godbolt - Austin - Did not play in Austin's 4-0 loss to Montreal.Andrew Gregor - Rochester - Started and played 90 minutes in Rochester's 2-1 lost to Portland. Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Rochester's 2-1 win over Vancouver on Saturday.Willy Guadarrama - Austin Aztex U-23 (PDL) - Austin's PDL team did not play this past week.Pat Healey - Baltimore (USL2) - Started and played 90 minutes in CPB's 1-0 win over Western Mass on Saturday. Was on the bench but did not play when CPB lost 2-1 to Charlotte.Amir Lowery - Carolina - Missed Carolina's 2-0 win over Miami due to a red card suspension.Ryan McMahen - Austin - Started and played 64 minutes in Austin's 4-0 loss to Montreal.Ryan Pore - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes scoring in the 90th minute from the penalty spot in Portland's 2-1 win over Rochester.Eric Quill - Houston Leones (PDL) - Did not dress in Houston's 3-0 loss to the DFW Tornados.Yomby William - Richmond (USL2) - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 1-1 draw with Charlotte.John Wilson - Charleston - Missed Charleston's 0-0 draw with Montreal due to a red card suspension. Started and played 86 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 win over Miami.

InternationalEloy Colombano - Club Atlético Atlanta - Argentina - Atlanta loss 3-0 to CA Sarmiento.Eddie Johnson - Cardiff City - England - Johnson is back with Fulham now that Cardiff's season is over.Chris Konopka - Longford Town - Ireland - Longford Town lost to Limerick FC 3-2.Ryan Raybould - Gefle IF FF - Sweden - Did not dress for either of Gefle's 2 wins this past week (3-2 over IF Brommapojkarna and 2-0 over Halmstads BK).Scott Sealy - Maccabi Tel Aviv - Israel - Started and played 90 minutes in Tel Aviv's 2-1 win over Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv.Khari Stephenson - Aalesunds FK - Norway - Started and played 72 minutes in Aalesunds' 2-0 win over Lyn Oslo.Antti Sumiala - FC Porin Palloilijat - Came off the bench and played 25 minutes in PoPa's 2-2 tie with KPV.Matt Taylor - TUS Koblenz - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Koblenz's 2-1 win over St Pauli.Ivan Trujillo - Deportes Quindío - Did not play in Quindío's 2-0 loss to Atlético Huila to end the first part of the Copa Mustang season. Quindío did not qualify for the group stage.

Made it out to practice today and along with the interview with Kevin Hartman, I thought I'd throw out a few observations from practice today. First, the Wizards 3 long term injuries, Eric Kronberg, Chance Myers, and Adam Cristman all continue to recover and get closer to actually being back. Kronberg today was actually able to do some light diving during some keeper drills today. Myers continues his comeback, he's a week or two ahead of Cristman in his recovery and is doing more work with the ball than Cristman is. Cristman is getting closer, but he's still not able to do much running right now yet, possibly next week he'll be able to do some running.

People worried about Lance Watson's shin injury he suffered in Salt Lake can rest easy as he was practicing just fine today, with the part of shin wrapped very tightly. The one bit of worrisome news was that Josh Wolff sat out the second half of the scrimmage today with some small injury issues. They don't seem to be too serious as he played just fine in the first half of the scrimmage. When Wolff went out, Abe Thompson moved into the first team and teamed with Claudio Lopez up top. Overall I'd still expect Wolff to be starting come Saturday.

Wizards goalkeeper, Kevin Hartman won this week's interview poll and today out at practice I got the chance to talk with Hartman. I was able to ask him about him recently setting the consecutive minutes played record along with his second streak of over 90 consecutive games started and what's led to his longevity. Hartman also talks about last weekend's game in Salt Lake, the first regular season loss in Rio Tinto for RSL, Hartman's first win in Salt Lake. Finally Hartman talks about the coming week's game at home against Chivas. Enjoy.

This audio interview is from imeem, and they've recently changed the way you listen to the audio. By hitting the play button you only get to hear the first 30 seconds. If you click on "play the full song here" in the imeem audio box you should be able to hear the full audio.

For the second time this season, Wizards forward, Josh Wolff has been named MLS player of the week for his two goal performance this past weekend against Real Salt Lake. Wolff had previously received the award after his two goal performance in KC's 2-2 draw with Chicago. Wolff has certainly come alive the past few weeks, scoring 6 goals in the last 6 games for KC. A nice run that has some people making whispers of him being called back up to the national team for one of the two tournaments this summer.

The Rangers dominated the game from the start, but didn't create many good chances early. Once the Rangers got started, though, the flood gates opened. Herculez Gomez opened the scoring when he headed in a lofted cross from Michael Harrington. Gomez was on the back post and had all day to set himself and head the ball back into the far corner. Shortly after that goal the Rangers doubled the lead, again through Gomez. Kevin Souter sent a low cross through the box where Gomez ran onto the ball and easily beat the keeper to make it 2-0. After that goal the Rangers produced numerous other good chances, Gomez had a few chances to complete the natural hattrick, and Michael Kraus was foiled on a breakaway by the Brass keeper.

It wasn't long though before the Rangers made it 3. Abe Thompson sent a cross from the left corner into the box on the ground where Kraus out muscled his defender and was able to turn the ball into the net. Then right before half time, Matt Marquess made it 4-0 when he received a pass about 22 yards out from goal and let rip with a great shot that the keeper had no chance to stop.

In the second half the Rangers continued to dominate the game but once again it took them a little while to find the net. First, though, around the 55th minute, Harrington and Gomez both came out with guest player Josh White and second round draft pick, Doug DeMartin came into the game. The 5th goal came when the Brass failed to clear their end of the field. Souter, Thompson, DeMartin, and Morsink all had chances before the ball fell to Jonathan Leathers, who had his initial shot blocked. The shot went right back to Leathers who was able to place the ball into the corner to make it 5-0. It became 6 soon afterwards. Souter played another cross into the box where it was met by Kraus. Kraus headed the ball back across goal to Thompson who finished into the open net. Graham Zusi finished off the scoring when he worked a give-and-go with DeMartin at the top of the box and finished low to the keepers right.

The reserves could have made the score much worse with all the opportunities that they had, but didn't finish. DeMartin had a chance right at the end on another breakaway, but his last touch pushed the ball too far out in front of him. In the end, though, the Rangers took it to the PDL side exactly how you'd expect and hope they would to most of the college and PDL teams they play.

Once again, Josh Wolff is up for Goal of the Week. His first goal on Saturday night against Real Salt Lake is up for the award this week. It's got some tough competition from Eddie Lewis and Santino Quaranta in particular. Check the goal out again.

The Wizards went into Salt Lake City last night and came away with a 2-0 win, the first regular season loss by Real Salt Lake at their new stadium, Rio Tinto. Two goals by Josh Wolff led the Wizards to the big win in probably their best performance of the season. Early on KC controlled the tempo of the game, and were rewarded for it with a very nice counterattacking goal. Jack Jewsbury intercepted a pass in his defensive half of the field and played a long ball over the top to a streaking Josh Wolff. Wolff dribbled in on goal in a scene that brought back memories of his goal against Mexico in 2002 World Cup Qualifying. Wolff's touch to get around RSL goalkeeper, Chris Seitz, was saved by the RSL keeper, but the ball went right back off of Wolff and past Seitz. Wolff got one last touch, sliding the ball into the empty net to give KC the early lead.

After this, RSL started to come into the game and started testing Kevin Hartman. He did well to get down and save a Robbie Russell shot in the 36th minute and then saved Kyle Beckerman's header on the ensuing corner. KC was able to hold on and go into the half up 1-0. In the second half, RSL continued to push for the equalizer and KC's back 4 held on and were able to keep RSL out. In the 67th minute KC again hit on the counter. Michael Harrington won the ball in the defensive half of the field and then ran down the right side before crossing into the middle where Wolff had lost his mark and was able to get a toe to the ball knocking it past Seitz and into the net for the 2-0 lead. RSL continued to push and but were held back by KC's defense, Hartman, and the post. RSL also had a goal called back for offsides during the second half as well. KC continued to try to go on the counter and probably should have had a 3rd in the 84th minute when a cross found Herculez Gomez on the right side. Unfortunately, even with time, Gomez put his shot over the bar. Still, the two goals from Wolff were enough to give KC the win.

Wizards Man of the Match - Josh Wolff - Wolff not only had the brace, but was dangerous at other times during the game as well. He's hit a very good run of form right now and will hopefully be able to keep it up in the coming weeks. The move back to being a forward has really helped Wolff.

Honorable Mention - Kevin Hartman - You don't often make 7 saves, get the shutout, and not win Man of the Match.

Things are not looking good at the moment for the Wizards stadium at Hillcrest Road opening up in time for the 2011 season. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, it looks like chances are starting to get very slim for an opening in 2011. Due to the current state of the economy it's hard for the developers to sign any retail or office tenants for the project. This means that the Wizards could be spending a fourth season at Community America, or possibly find a new location, potentially Arrowhead since renovations would be done there.

The article also brings the ugly idea of relocation back to the forefront saying that the Wizards occasionally get offers from other cities trying to lure a team there. The problem with the statement in the article is that it doesn't come from a person working for OnGoal or the Wizards, but someone working for Lane4Property Group, which makes the statement very odd. The other thing in the article that is disturbing is the lack of comment by Robb Heineman who is usually more than willing to give a quote on the project. Hopefully this is just a small bump in the road, but it's certainly not good for the team that they could be spending a fourth season without a permanent home.

Friday, May 15, 2009

The Wizards continue play this weekend with a match out West against Real Salt Lake. RSL comes into the game off the backs of a 1-0 loss in LA to Chivas USA. RSL is winless in league play since putting half a dozen on the board against New England, but the game is at Rio Tinto, where RSL is undefeated this season (3-0-1). Last time out at home they drew with LA in a game with late fireworks as 3 goals were scored in second half stoppage time.

KC comes into the game on the backs of their 3-2 loss to Columbus and after going 4 games unbeaten, the Wizards are now winless in their last 3 games. The good news for the Wizards is that it appears that Josh Wolff has found some good scoring form scoring 4 goals in his last 5 matches. Hopefully that form continues on the road this week. With Claudio Lopez now pretty much healthy from the illness that limited him to a half in Columbus, there looks like there will be only 1 lineup change this week from the team that started against Columbus. Making way for Lopez to come back into the lineup is Michael Harrington.

Key Match Up - Matt Besler/Lance Watson vs Clint Mathis - Whichever side Mathis ends up playing on, he's going to be a handful for either Besler or Watson. Recently it appears he's played on the left meaning that Watson will get to deal with Mathis. He's experienced a bit of a revival this season, playing very well, even starting to create some whispers by people that he should receive a call back to the national team for one of the tournaments this summer.

PREDICTION - As mentioned earlier, Salt Lake is very good at home, and while the Wizards record on the road doesn't look horrible (1-3-1), the Wizards haven't looked really good on the road either this season. It's cliche, but the first goal will go a long way to deciding the game. KC is undefeated this season when scoring first (3-0-0), but are winless when conceding first (0-4-2). If KC has to chase the game, especially in the altitude in Salt Lake, they are going to be in trouble. Unfortunately I think Salt Lake is just too good of a team at Rio Tinto.

Here are this week's demolition pictures from out at Bannister Mall. Looks like they've started clearing out the inside of Sears, the last part of the mall that hasn't been cleared out. There are multiple holes in the building where debris has been pushed out. The outside work continues to come along as they push further and further towards Sears.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Today before the press conference, Thad was able to get a good interview with Wizards captain, Jimmy Conrad. In a portion of it, Conrad talked about SuperLiga. One of the major complaints in the past had been the "$1 million prize" for the teams and how that was misleading, as the players actually didn't split $1 million, instead they split a small portion of that amount. Conrad mentioned today in the interview that the percentage of the prize given to the players has increased from previous years. "We've settled on a total that's fair" Conrad said of the new agreement between the league and the Players Union. Conrad didn't know the exact numbers, but he said it's probably about a 10-15% increase, which really isn't that much of the current 15% (it only would be 17.5% if it was just a 15% raise), although Conrad could have misspoke and the new number is now in the 25-30% range, which would be better.

I've received a few emails today asking why the SuperLiga game against Atlas is being played in St. Louis and not in Kansas City. I've been told that there are a few reasons why the Wizards will be playing this game on the opposite side of the state.

1. The obvious reason is that Community America Ballpark is unavailable due to the T-Bones already having a home game scheduled for that date.

2. The dates for SuperLiga have been set in stone by MLS, FMF, and SUM so there is no way the date of the game can be moved.

3. Arrowhead is out due to the current renovations.

4. The site has to allow beer and liquor advertisements to be put up. This rules out all high school sites around the city including ODAC, BVAC, CBAC, and Ray-Pec.

5. The site has to be a grass facility without football lines. This rules out the home of the KC Brass, William Jewell, Rockhurst University, and MU.

6. The facility has to be wide enough, which rules out a short trip to Lawrence and KU.

I'm not overly happy about it like many of you, but it's the unfortunate situation KC is in without a soccer specific stadium.

Today at his weekly press conference, Wizards coach, Curt Onalfo announced the Wizards schedule for this year's SuperLiga.

Due to conflicts with CAB and the inability to use other venues for different reasons, the Wizards will open SuperLiga in St. Louis on June 21st against sister club Atlas. The Wizards will then travel to New England where they will take on the Revolution on the 24th in the second game of group play. KC will close out group play on June 28th at Community America against Santos Laguna, who the Wizards have a colorful history with having played against each other in the Copa Mercanorte, CONCACAF Champion's Cup, and in a friendly.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

So this is a rumor that's been making the rounds for a while now. Rumor has been that the Wizards were planning on hosting one of their "home" SuperLiga games in St. Louis at Hermann Stadium on the SLU campus. Now there is confirmation of that rumor from a news source, the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Tom Timmermann says that while the deal has not been finalized, it looks like it could be confirmed as early as tomorrow. The game would take place June 21st against a yet to be determined Mexican league team. This is a different version than the last rumor on this I'd heard, which was that the game in St. Louis would be against New England, not a team from Mexico. The reason given for the move is because the T-Bones are at home that day for a league game.

As someone who has been waiting for the return of a competitive international game between the Wizards and a foreign club to return to KC, this is very disappointing. I'm greedy and selfish, I want these games to be in KC because I think the KC fans deserve to have these games in KC. The main argument against my line of thinking is that this game is only about 3 hours away for KC fans. Still how many St. Louis fans regularly come to KC for games? So how likely is it for KC fans to make the trek across the state for a SuperLiga game? I'm not happy about this idea at all, especially the idea of it being one of the Mexican league games. The rumor of it being New England didn't bother me as much because I've seen New England play plenty of times. And with guys like Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston both from that side of the state and on New England's roster it made sense to have that game there. But to move a game against one of the Mexican league teams sucks.

This week's poll winner was Wizards' rookie, Matt Besler. Today Thad was able to interview him and get the interview up. Besler talks about the game against Columbus, the switch at half time from a left back to the center back position and how he handled that adjustment. He also talks about the upcoming game against Real Salt Lake and a little of what they expect from that game.

Thad was also able to get an interview with this week's runner up, Josh Wolff. Wolff talks about the game against Columbus, how the team felt about the game and how they played the game. He also gives a bit of a break down of the Resl Salt Lake game as well.

Another week where I'm getting an update on former Wizards early. There are some PDL games and games in Colombia that have former Wizards in them that I'll be updating. Here is the first update though. Two former Wizards saw red this weekend, both in the same game, as John Wilson and Amir Lowery both were red carded in the Charleston-Carolina game this weekend.

MLSNick Garcia - San Jose Earthquakes - Started and played 90 minutes in the Earthquakes 4-1 loss to New York.Taylor Graham - Seattle Sounders FC - Dressed but did not play in Seattle's 1-1 draw with LA on Sunday.Will Hesmer - Columbus Crew - On the bench but did not play in Columbus' 3-2 win over KC as he continues his recovery from injury.Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Came off the bench and played 27 minutes in LA's 1-1 draw with Seattle.Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Started and played 75 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to Chivas USA.Brandon Prideaux - Chicago Fire - Started and played 90 minutes in Chicago's 1-1 draw with New England.Carey Talley - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 minutes in Chivas' 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake.Shavar Thomas - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 in Chivas' 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake.Dave van den Bergh - FC Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 1-0 loss to Houston.Sasha Victorine - Chivas USA - Came off the bench and played 17 minutes in Chivas' 1-0 win over Real Salt LakeTyson Wahl - Seattle Sounders FC - Dressed but did not play in Seattle's 1-1 tie with LA.

USLStephen Armstrong - Charleston - Did not dress in Charleston's 2-1 win over Carolina.Vicente Arze - Vancouver - Started and played 90 minutes in Vancouver's 1-0 win over Puerto Rico.Byron Carmichael - Ocean City Barons - Started and played 58 minutes before Ocean City's game with the Westchester Flames was called due to lightning.Ryan Caugherty - Austin - Started for Austin in their 1-1 draw with Puerto Rico.Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Minnesota did not play this week.AJ Godbolt - Austin - Started for Austin in their 1-1 draw with Puerto Rico.Andrew Gregor - Rochester - Came off the bench and played 1 minute in Rochester's 2-1 win over Montreal.Willy Guadarrama - Austin Aztex U-23 (PDL) - Started and played 73 minutes in Austin's 3-1 loss to the Laredo Heat on Thursday. Came off the bench and played 25 minutes on Saturday in Austin's 1-1 tie with Houston. Was on the bench for Austin last night in their 4-2 win over DFW, and scored the Aztex's 4th goal in their win.Pat Healey - Baltimore (USL2) - Started and played 90 minutes in CPB's 2-0 loss to the Real Maryland MonarchsAmir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 18 minutes before being red carded in Carolina's 2-1 loss to Charleston.Ryan McMahen - Austin - Started for Austin in their 1-1 draw with Puerto Rico.Ryan Pore - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 0-0 draw with Cleveland.Eric Quill - Houston Leones (PDL) - Started and played 75 minutes, recording an assist in Houston's 1-1 draw with Austin.Yomby William - Richmond (USL2) - Did not appear in Richmond's 1-0 loss to the Bermuda Hogges.John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 83 minutes before being red carded in Charleston's 2-1 win over Carolina.

InternationalEloy Colombano - Club Atlético Atlanta - Argentina - Atlanta loss 1-0 to CA Colegiales.Eddie Johnson - Cardiff City - England - Johnson is back with Fulham now that Cardiff's season is over.Chris Konopka - Longford Town - Ireland - Did not appear in Longford Town's 2-2 draw with Shelbourne.Ryan Raybould - Gefle IF FF - Sweden - On the bench but did not play in Gefle's 3-0 loss to IFK. On the bench on the 13th but did not play in Gefle's 1-0 win over Djurgården in the Swedish Cup.Scott Sealy - Maccabi Tel Aviv - Israel - Started and played 90 minutes in Tel Aviv's 2-0 loss to Beitar Jerusalem.Khari Stephenson - Aalesunds FK - Norway - Started and played 90 minutes in Aalesunds' 5-0 win over Brattvåg in the first round of the cup.Antti Sumiala - FC Porin Palloilijat - Started and played 90 minutes in Palloilijat's 2-0 loss to FC Hämeenlinna.Matt Taylor - TUS Koblenz - Germany - Did not dress for Koblenz's 5-2 loss to SC Freiburg or their 1-1 draw with Ahlen.Ivan Trujillo - Deportes Quindío - Did not play in Quindío's 2-0 win over América de Cali. Did not appear in Quindío's 4-1 loss to Atlético Junior on Wednesday.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

While keeping track of my regular stats that I always do after every match, I realized that the Wizards are very close to scoring their 600th league goal and their 700th in all competitions. Currently the Wizards have scored 588 goals in MLS play, which puts them in 7th place overall. They are in a race with New York (596) and New England (593) to become the 5th team to hit the 600th league goal mark. DC (693), LA (652), Dallas (606), and Columbus (605) have all already hit that mark.

The Wizards can also become the 5th team to reach the 700 goal mark in all competitions. The team has currently scored 692 in all competitions. Chicago is right behind them with 687. DC (885), LA (834), Dallas (719), and Columbus (712) have all already reached that milestone.

Here are the milestone goal scorers for the Wizards in league play.

Date

Player

minute

Against

1

4/13/1996

Digital Takawira

71

Colorado Rapids

100

7/19/1997

Mark Chung

15

DC United

200

3/25/2000

Preki

63

Chicago Fire

300

7/13/2002

Chris Klein

64

New England Revolution

400

4/2/2005

Josh Wolff

34

Colorado Rapids

500

4/25/2007

Eddie Johnson

5

Toronto FC

And here are the landmark goal scorers for the Wizards in all competitions.

Date

Player

minute

Against

1

4/13/1996

Digital Takawira

71

Colorado Rapids

100

6/21/1997

Edmundo Rodriguez

87

DC United

200

7/31/1999

Preki

35

San Jose Clash

300

8/12/2001

Roy Lassister

90

Colorado Rapids

400

7/4/2003

Stephen Armstrong

90

Colorado Rapids

500

5/21/2005

own goal

62

DC United

600

5/5/2007

Jose Burciaga Jr.

90

Columbus Crew

Also of note, MLS' 7,000th goal should be scored this weekend, with the league currently sitting on 6,994. Former Wizard, Alex Bunbury scored the 2,000th goal in MLS history on 7/3/1999 against Tampa Bay.

Monday, May 11, 2009

In the middle of April I mentioned how Kurt Morsink was rumored to be among the players called up for the upcoming friendly between Costa Rica and Venezuela on May 13th in Venezuela. Yesterday the roster for that game was named, and unfortunately, Morsink was not on the list. The roster instead is made up of players from the Costa Rican league.

After having last week off with no interview, it's time again to vote for who you'd like to see interviewed this week. You can vote both here and at The Back Post. Here are this week's nominees.

Josh Wolff - Goal scorer in both of KC's games this past week.Matt Besler - Rookie defender moved from left back to center back in the last game.Herculez Gomez - Had his knee drained after the game on Wednesday.

Remember to also post any questions that you'd like asked in the comments section.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Josh Wolff's header goal that made it 3-2 last night is up for Goal of the Week this week. The MLS site does not have the voting open yet, but you can see all the goals in this Youtube video posted on the MLS Youtube account. You can see Wolff's goal again below. For me the thing that makes this worthy isn't the finish, but the great cross by Jack Jewsbury. It's similar to Wolff's last goal up for goal of the week when he scored against Chicago.

Lots of stats from last night's game, milestone appearance, milestone minutes played, milestone goals, almost every kind of stat you could ask for.

Last night was Davy Arnaud's 200th appearance in all competitions for KC.

Last night was also Josh Wolff's 100th appearance for KC in league play.

It was Wolff's 93rd league start for KC, tying him with Mark Chung for 16th on that list.

Wolff's 112th appearance in all competitions with the Wizards, breaking a tie with Digital Takawira for 18th on the all time list.

In the 70th minute, Wolff passed Mark Chung to move into 17th place for minutes played in league play. Wolff finished the game with 8,289 minutes played.

In the 32nd minute, Wolff passed Mark Chung for minutes played in competitive games for the Wizards, moving into 18th place. In the 48th minute, he passed Sasha Victorine for 17th place on the all time list, Wolff finished the game with 9,226 minutes played.

Jimmy Conrad in the 39th minute went over the 25,000 minutes in all competitions in his MLS career.

Claudio Lopez's goal was his 10th in all competitions for the Wizards.

Jack Jewsbury's assist on Wolff's goal was his 18th for the Wizards in league play, breaking a tie with Matt McKeon and Jose Burciaga Jr for 10th place.

Jewsbury's appearance was his 105th league start, breaking a tie with Sean Bowers for 13th on that list.

In the 41st minute, Jewsbury moved past Diego Gutierrez for the 10th most minutes played in the league for KC. Jewsbury finished the game with 9,811 minutes played.

The Wizards played well at times, at times they looked like a very strong team, but it wasn't enough as KC fell to the Columbus Crew last night 3-2. The game started off with a fast pace, as the Crew tried to stamp their authority of the game. KC responded and played with the Crew, getting up and down the field quickly. Unlike previous games, KC seemed to be taking more shots early on, there were numerous times when players took shots from distance testing Crew goalkeeper, Andy Gruenebaum. In the 24th minute, the Eddie Gaven got in behind the Wizards defense, but Kevin Hartman was quick off his line making the save. Things, though, had started to turn as the Crew was spending more and more time in KC's defensive third of the field. Finally in the 38th minute the Crew broke through. After some good passing by the Crew on the right side, the Wizards couldn't clear a poor touch and the ball went right to Emmanuel Ekpo whose sliding shot beat Hartman, giving the Crew the lead. That lead stuck to half time.

During half time, Wizards forward, Claudio Lopez subbed into the game and seemed to bring a new energy to the team as they pressured right from the start of the second half. In the 51st minute that paid off as Davy Arnaud was fouled on the right side of the field. Lopez played in the free kick, which went just over the head of Josh Wolff, and bounced past Gruenebaum and into the net. Only 4 minutes after that goal though KC found themselves behind again as Hartman made a weak punch on a ball he probably should have caught. The punch went to Frankie Hejduk whose cross into the box was met by Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who'd lost Lance Watson. The header gave the Crew a 2-1 lead. KC continued to push for another equalizer, as Wolff had a nice blast saved by Gruenebaum. Unfortunately with the push for the equalizer, KC got exposed a bit at the back. In the 78th minute a Robbie Rogers cross was met by Gaven at the far post and he calming slotted the ball past Hartman. KC responded immediately to the goal as the Wizards came right back down the field and a great cross by Jack Jewsbury was headed in by Wolff to pull the Wizards within 1 again. KC had some late chances to get the tie but couldn't find the back of the net as the Crew got their first win of the season.

Wizards Man of the Match - Claudio Lopez - He only played one half, but he was the Wizards best player, he changed the game for KC when he came on the field. Yes his corners still leave something to desire though.

One other note I'd like to make about the game. Kudos to Jorge Gonzalez for stepping up and taking a stand against fans throwing stuff on the field. It's a problem in many stadiums, but it's been pretty bad in Columbus. A few weeks ago an assistant referee was hit with a water bottle. I was very happy to see Gonzalez pull his AR away from the situation and go talk with his 4th official and Crew staff on the other side of the field. Hopefully this is a big step in ending that sort of thing.

Friday, May 08, 2009

The Wizards are back in action again on Saturday when they travel to Columbus to take on defending MLS Cup Champions, the Columbus Crew. The Crew, though, have had a rough go of it to begin the season as they are currently winless with 5 points (0-2-5) through their first 7 games. They will be getting a few players back from suspension and injury it would appear though. Gino Padula returns after sitting out one game for his red card suspension. Also it appears that Crew captain, Frankie Hejduk is set to return, while former Wizard Will Hesmer could also make his return from injury. The Crew will be desperate to get that "last team without a win" title off their back this weekend.

The Wizards come in having gone through the motions it seemed in the teams 1-1 draw with DC on Wednesday out at Community America Ballpark. They'll be looking to break a 5 game winless streak against the Crew in all competitions (all came last year, 3 league and 2 playoff games). Having made it out to practice today, it looks like there could be some lineup changes made with another short break between games. Herculez Gomez was out at practice, but was on the side with Chance Myers and Adam Cristman. I was told that Gomez apparently had his knee drained. So I don't expect Gomez to be starting come Saturday. The other thing from practice was that Claudio Lopez was not out there at all today. I don't know if he was just given the day off and inside on the bike or what. But with the game only a day away I'm surprised he wasn't out there. Maybe Coach Onalfo is giving Lopez the game off to save his legs, similar to what he tried to do at times last year. If neither one of those two play, then we'll likely see a lineup similar to what we saw in Toronto.

If Lopez can go, I'd expect Harrington to drop to the bench and Arnaud to drop to right midfield.

Key Match Up - Jimmy Conrad vs Chad Marshall on free kicks - Marshall seemed to get the better of Conrad in those situations last year so this year hopefully Conrad can return the favor. This will be a match up of two of the better defenders in MLS and with Guillermo Barros Schelotto playing in the Crew's corners and free kicks, Conrad will have to be on his game marking the Crew center back.

PREDICTION - The Crew have got to be hungry, they've blown leads the past 3 games to settle for draws instead of wins. Two of those blown leads have come in the 82nd minute or later. Eventually the Crew defense is going to step up and just shut a team down similar to how they did in the 2008 season. Unfortunately with the way that the Wizards offense has looked lately (aimless), I have a bad feeling it'll be this game. I'll be watching the game this weekend from Coach's again. Yes I know there's a watch party at Fox & Hound off of Metcalf, but the fact that Coach's has supported the team before there was an official watch party this season I'll be attending at Coach's.

Not a lot of exterior work seems to have been done this past week out at the Bannister Mall site, but they appear to be moving along on getting the rest of the inside of the mall cleared out. In fact, all the walls appear to be down and you can now see clearly all the way to the Sear's entrance inside the mall now. Here is the full album.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Kansas City's PDL team, the Brass, begin their season this weekend in Colorado with a pair of games against Real Colorado Foxes. The Brass' player pool roster is not out and as always, is full of players either playing college ball in KC or originally from KC now playing college somewhere else. The roster has 9 players that were on last season's KC Wizards Juniors U19 team that finished as runners up in the national finals. Also on the roster is another Juniors player as well as a player from the DC United youth system. The first home game of the season for the Brass is a week from Sunday, May 17th against the St. Louis Lions.

The Wizards and DC United played to an uninspiring 1-1 draw last night out at Community America Ballpark. DC played without some of their bigger guns, including Ben Olsen and Fred who didn't travel, and Luciano Emilio and Christian Gomez who started the game on the bench. Still with the younger lineup out there for DC, KC couldn't take advantage of it.

KC dictated the tempo early in the game, but really weren't creating many chances for Louis Crayton in the DC net. DC started to get more of the game as Chris Pontius hit the post in the 22nd minute. Then, in the 27th minute were able to grab the lead as Jamie Moreno played a ball into the box. Rodney Wallace raced onto the ball with Lance Watson, but when Watson tried to muscle Wallace off the ball, it was Watson who fell down. As Watson fell down, Wallace 5-holed Kevin Hartman and gave DC the lead.

In the second half, KC was back to controlling most of the tempo, and actually started to look threatening. Watson made some amends for his earlier mistake in the 52nd minute when he won the ball with a sliding tackle and hopped right back up to play the ball to Jack Jewsbury whose cross was met by the sliding foot of Josh Wolff and went past Crayton and into the net to level the score. KC continued the pressure, as Claudio Lopez fired into the side netting in the 58th. Then in the 62nd minute, KC really should have grabbed the lead as Lopez played in a cross to the back post, where it was met by Wolff, unfortunately Wolff put the shot just wide of the post.

Overall a very forgetful performance and game by both teams as for much of the game they looked like they were both just going through the motions.

Wizards Man of the Match - Josh Wolff - Tough to decide this one, as no one really had a stand out performance last night, but Wolff was KC's most dangerous player and was able to at least make the most of one of his chances, although he should have had a second.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Once again I'm getting an update out early, which means that there will be an update to this post after tonight's MLS (KC-DC, RSL-LA) and Nutrilite Canadian Championship games (TFC-Vancouver).

MLSNick Garcia - San Jose Earthquakes - Started and played 90 minutes in the Earthquakes 1-0 loss to Chivas USA.Taylor Graham - Seattle Sounders FC - Dressed but did not play in Seattle's 1-1 draw with Chicago.Will Hesmer - Columbus Crew - Missed Columbus' 1-1 draw with Toronto due to injury.Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Started and played 75 minutes in LA's 1-0 win over LA. Started and played 61 minutes in LA's 2-2 draw with RSL.Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Started and played 66 minutes in RSL's 2-0 loss to Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Cup. Started and played 56 minutes Wednesday night in RSL's 2-2 draw with LA.Brandon Prideaux - Chicago Fire - Came off the bench and played 19 minutes in Chicago's 1-1 draw with Seattle.Carey Talley - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 minutes in Chivas' 1-0 win over San Jose.Shavar Thomas - Chivas USA - Started and played 90 in Chivas' 1-0 win over San Jose.Dave van den Bergh - FC Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes recording an assist in Dallas' 2-1 loss to DC United.Sasha Victorine - Chivas USA - Returned from injury, coming off the bench to play 16 minutes in Chivas' 1-0 win over San Jose.Tyson Wahl - Seattle Sounders FC - Did not dress for Seattle's 1-1 draw with Chicago.

USLStephen Armstrong - Charleston - Started and played 45 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 win over Miami.Vicente Arze - Vancouver - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in Vancouver's 3-2 win over Minnesota. Started and played 90 minutes in Vancouver's 1-0 loss to Toronto FC in the opening game of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship.Ryan Caugherty - Austin - Austin did not play this past week.Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not dress for Minnesota's 3-2 loss to Vancouver.AJ Godbolt - Austin - Austin did not play this week.Andrew Gregor - Rochester - Did not dress in Rochester's 3-0 win over Cleveland.Pat Healey - Baltimore (USL2) - Started and played 66 minutes in CPB's 2-0 win over the Charlotte Eagles. Started and played 90 minutes in Baltimore's 3-0 loss to Wilmington.Amir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 90 minutes drawing a yellow in Carolina's 0-0 draw with Portland on Thursday. Started and played 90 minutes, drawing another yellow in Carolina's 2-0 loss to Portland on Saturday.Ryan McMahen - Austin - Austin did not play this week.Ryan Pore - Portland - Started and played 83 minutes drawing a yellow in Portland's 0-0 draw with Carolina on Thursday. Started and played 90 minutes recording a goal and an assist in Portland's 2-0 win over Carolina on Saturday.Yomby William - Richmond (USL2) - Started and played 89 minutes in Richmond's 2-0 win over Western Mass.John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in the Battery's 1-0 win over Miami.

Also if anyone knows where these players are now plying their trade, if they still are active players, please let me know.Jose Burciaga Jr. - Last I heard he was on trial with Tecos, but haven't heard anything about how it went.Will John - Haven't heard anything since his failed move to MŠK Žilina.Chris Konopka - Haven't found anything since his trail with Red Bulls this preseason.Carlos Marinelli - Was recently released.Alex Zotinca - Was released by Chivas in the off season.

I've finally given in and joined the Twitter craze. You can now follow Down the Byline on twitter at http://twitter.com/downthebyline so feel free to follow me there as well. Cut me some slack to start as I learn what's the best way for me to use it.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

After having last week off, the Wizards are back to work tomorrow as they take on DC United out at Community America. DC is coming into the game after a come from behind win against Dallas on Saturday night. DC is in a busy stretch of it's season, as this game will be their second of 3 games in an 8 day stretch, which ends on Saturday against Toronto. According to Steven Goff with the Washington Post, Ben Olsen, Marc Burch, and Fred all didn't make the trip to Kansas City for the game.

Kansas City has had a week to get players healthy after last week's 1-0 loss to Toronto FC. Minor knocks to players like Davy Arnaud and Josh Wolff look to be healed, while Jack Jewsbury appears to have recovered from his concussion as well. So outside of the 3 players still on injured reserve, Coach Onalfo should have his full compliment of players to choose from. With that in mind, we'll likely see a lineup similar to that which took the field when the Wizards played New York almost two weeks ago now.

Key Match Up - Jimmy Conrad vs Luciano Emilio - The former MLS MVP is DC's leading scorer this season with 4 goals and will be a handful for the Wizards captain to contain and keep out of the game.

PREDITION - This is the first of 3 meetings this season between KC and DC, the first of two at CAB. The Wizards should be the more fresh side tomorrow and coming off the week off should be ready to play against someone other than themselves. KC has played well recently at home against DC, so getting less than a win tomorrow would be a disappointment. With a win KC can jump back up to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

I don't talk much about my personal fandom and how I support the Wizards, but I feel like doing a little bit of self exposure tonight. I'm a fan of the show Special1 TV, which is where I got my idea for my latest banner that I have at Wizards games. The banner, for those that haven't seen it, is a picture of Special1 TV host, "The Special One", Jose Mourinho. Well, today's episode came out and a picture of me holding my "Special One" banner at Thursday's game against New York shows up in the first part of the show.